1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording and reproducing apparatus, and more particularly relates to an information recording and reproducing apparatus in which recording and reproduction of information are performed on and from a disc-shaped information recording medium having a plurality of recording tracks, each of which recording tracks is divided into a plurality of sectors, and the information recording and reproduction are effected on a sector-by-sector basis.
2. Description of the Related Art
When performing recording and reproduction of information on and from a disc-shaped information recording medium on a sector-by-sector basis, sometimes there is encountered a defective sector whose address can not be reproduced due to a defect existing in the information recording medium, etc. A method of recording and reproducing information on and from such a defective sector in a conventional information recording and reproducing apparatus is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 59-154654. That is, when it is impossible to reproduce a track address of a target sector, on and from which information is to be recorded and reproduced, but it is possible to identify only a sector address of the target sector by the coincidence detection, by utilizing the result of detection of the respective track addresses of n sectors positioned preceding the target sector, it is possible to identify the track address of the defective target sector and thereby to perform recording and reproduction of information on and from the defective target sector, even when its track address can not be reproduced.
In such a conventional method, however, it is impossible to perform information recording and reproducing on and from a target sector, when not only a track address but also a sector address of the target sector can not be reproduced.